Out-Of-Body Experience And Astral Projection

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I’ve been dropping hints about astral projection here and here. It’s time to share my understanding of this unusual phenomena.

Is it astral projection or out-of-body experience?

First, the issue of name. Often, the New Age people use the word “astral projection” while the more science-oriented people call it “out-of-body experience”. And when the phenomena is involuntarily induced with severe physical trauma, it’s called “near-death experience”.

They are basically the same experience. However, I recently read a book called “Soul Traveler: A Guide to Out-of-Body Experiences and the Wonders Beyond”, which shed some light to this confusion.

The author of this book, a NASA engineer with a doctorate degree, says his “soul travels” (the name he chooses to use) started with his astral body separating from his physical body. At some point, however, he realized he wasn’t using his astral body any longer — he realized he was just a “pinpoint of consciousness”. Further, he maintains that the astral body is only useful in the astral plane and, to fly higher than the astral plane into the causal, mental, and etheric plane, he needs to be this pinpoint of consciousness.

• Astral projection – The astral body is “projected”, voluntarily or involuntarily, from the physical body. Technically, it’s scope is limited to the astral plane.
• Out-of-body experience – A catchall term that includes astral projection.
• Near-death experience – Specific cases of out-of-body experience caused by physical trauma.

I am going to use the term “out-of-body experience (OBE)” from here on because it is more neutral and it covers wider range of experiences.

Is this for real?

Before some of you start thinking this article is too “occult”, let me assure you that many people who have had out-of-body experiences are ordinary people, with or without specific faith. The author of the aforementioned book, Albert Taylor, is one of them.

Another thing to consider is, those who had OBE come back with the knowledge they could not have known in the usual way. This seems to provide validity to their claim of having OBE. For example, Albert Taylor says he could visit his friend’s residence, where he had never visited, and provide details of the room later.

Another example is the one in Wikipedia’s “Out-of Body Experience“, in which the person has OBE “during brain surgery and described a surgical instrument she had not seen previously, as well as conversation that occurred while she was under anesthesia”.

The purpose of out-of-body experience

Some people practice the voluntary induction of out-of-body experience to have firsthand spiritual experience. Reading about spirituality is one thing — experiencing yourself as pure spirit (soul) is quite another.

When you are out of the body, you definitely know you are not just your body. This liberates you from the restrictive ideas and patterns of our daily life.

OBE also helps you to overcome the fear of death. If you are keeping consciousness while you are out of your body, what is so scary about losing the body upon death? Plus, you may even get a glimpse of the “other side” while you are having OBE.

My purpose of OBE

My purpose, however, is a little different. As Akashic Record Reader, I already know we are spiritual beings having human experiences, not the other way around. There is something that connects us all and this is why I get to read the Akashic Records of my clients who may be thousands of miles away and whom I have never met.

I also know our souls have been reincarnating many times. The past life memories are still kept in our soul and sometimes affect us in unexpected ways. This is another thing I have known and verified many times through my Akashic Record Reading practice.

Then why am I interested in OBE?

I used to think OBE as a kind of spiritual gymnastics. It’s certainly interesting and impressive, but why invest the time and effort to achieve it? I’m not interested in show biz.

I now think it a little differently. Here are my two objectives of OBE:

1. OBE serves as a practice of conscious dying
That is, dying while fully aware of the transition from this world to the other side. There are many ways to exit this world. Most of the time, we exit by the old-fashioned death, by losing consciousness (temporarily). But I think it is possible to make the transition while I am aware.

In voluntary OBE, you practice putting your physical body to sleep while you stay conscious. Once the body is asleep, you can get out and have all kinds of fun.

And conscious transition to the other side is basically about moving further in OBE and not returning to the physical body. So OBE is the first step of conscious dying. Practice this, get familiar with the in-out transition, explore the nearby astrals, so that eventually I’ll be ready to move on further.

(Not surprisingly, initial OBEs come with fear of the unknown. Consider this as warning if you, too, want to practice.)

2. OBE may help explore the details of soul’s mystery
There are many unanswered questions about the soul. For example,

“Can we live without a soul?”
My guess is no because we ARE the soul. However, if the “pinpoint of consciousness” is the soul itself, the body seems to be able to at least sleep and survive until we return to it. So then, how much life function does the body have without the soul?  Is this about the body energy and the soul energy? Or is it not the soul that leaves the body?

“Do animals and plants have souls, too?”
This is related to the first question. If animals don’t have souls, when did we as humans start to have souls? Where is the line? If animals do have souls, do we reincarnate as animals and plants? I haven’t seen that in the Akashic Records so far.

(By the way, here is the article, an interview, in which personal development blogger Hunter Nuttall grilled me with so many great questions about the Akashic Records and the soul. This is one of the questions I could not answer back then — and therefore has been sitting on the back-burner since, for two years.)

“What are the true nature of spirit guides?”
I have working knowledge about spirit guides. I can even communicate with them. But who are they, really? When I get out of my body, is there a significant difference between me and them? Do I get to know them better in that form?

“What is the nature of dreams?”
There are many types of dreams. Some dreams are just our mind reviewing our awake life and seeking solutions. But there are some dreams that are so real. Often, flying dreams are one of them.

I have the feeling we are getting outside of the body while we are sleeping, but we just don’t remember it or we think it was a dream.

So I am checking to practice OBE. (Just started reading “Mastering Astral Projection: 90-day Guide to Out-of-Body Experience“)
I hope to have fun with this!

Have you had OBE? Do you have any questions? Let me know in the comment. Thank you.

Evil And The Law Of Attraction

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As I write this article, I wish to convey the depth of love that fills this universe. It’s always around you — you are wrapped in love. We just don’t sense it because our perception is severely limited.

When I wrote “We are all causing evils”, you may have felt uncomfortable. Some of you may reacted thinking, “No way. I am a good person. I don’t do bad things. Plus, how could I possibly have caused the starvation in Africa or debilitating diseases to innocent children?”

Well, even though it may not be so apparent, we all have caused the evils in this world. You, me, everyone. And this is a great news. Because if we have caused them, then we can cease to cause them.

I have a few tips how to. . .

What you focus on expands

The Law of Attraction says what you focus on expands. It doesn’t matter if your focus is a positive one (“I love this! I want more of this!”) or a negative one (“I hate this! I don’t want any of this!”)

And this is how so many sick people unwittingly aggravate their situation and how we increase bad news such as crimes and social injustice.

Let’s say you get sick. The original cause may have been some kind of infection or nutritional imbalance or stress, etc. The problem is, once you acknowledge you have the health problem, you keep thinking and worrying about it so much. This way, you energetically feed the disease. Eventually, you may even start identifying with the disease.

Focus on health and joy, not on health problem

Let me use myself as a humble example. So I had some problems with sugar. The original cause may have been hormonal imbalance with my age or yin yang imbalance or something else or all of the above.

Strange things happen when I start worrying about my eating habit. The more I try NOT to eat sugary foods, the more cravings I get. And things get worse and worse.

The solution is to direct my attention to something I want. If you have the same problem, make a basic plan of what you eat in a day, perhaps with a plan for physical activities, too. And more importantly, focus on doing something you enjoy (hopefully, this includes your work as well as your hobby).

When you have the craving, just observe it like you observe passing thoughts in meditation. It will pass if you don’t feed it by reacting to it (that is, arguing against it or reasoning things out to it or forcing yourself to ignore it, etc) We are incapable of holding one thought for a long time. Know you are more than the thought or the thinking mind, and just observe it.

Even when you end up eating that forbidden food, don’t punish yourself. Just take care of yourself (you may be feeling sick, so take a rest, take some supplements like vitamin C). Don’t dwell on it but instead re-direct your attention on the things you enjoy.

I am not going into details with other health issues but I hope you get the idea. Make a plan of your recovery and healing with conventional and/or alternative healthcare professionals, follow it, but don’t worry about your disease. And definitely don’t identify with your disease. When fear and anger arise, release them by simply observing them. Direct your energy to what you can do and enjoy.

Bad news sell

The same energetic dynamics is at play with evils such as social injustice. The more we focus on the bad news, the more bad news we create. And the media loves it — after all, they know bad news sell.

So the solution is to direct our attention to love, peace, compassion, harmony, and joy. Any small act of love helps. Actually, not just the actions to promote peace and compassion, any loving thoughts help.

As I wrote in the last post, there is no significant difference between me getting frustrated in the traffic jam and someone starting a war. So rather than worrying about the bad things happening, live your life with love.

This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give to good causes or do other activities to promote peace and justice. But worrying about evil really is counterproductive. (And reduce the time you watch the news. It reduces the bad news and helps your health.)

100th monkey

“But how can I, in the little corner of my town, affect the end of war that is happening thousands of miles away?”, you may ask.

Because the energy moves across space. Have you heard about the 100th monkey effect? From Wikipedia:

“(The scientist observed that) some of these monkeys (in the island) learned to wash sweet potatoes, and gradually this new behavior spread through the younger generation of monkeys—in the usual fashion, through observation and repetition. Watson then claimed that the researchers observed that once a critical number of monkeys was reached — the so-called hundredth monkey — this previously learned behavior instantly spread across the water to monkeys on nearby islands.”

So the monkeys in group B, who never met the potato-washing monkeys (group A), somehow figured to wash their potatoes. Not by direct communication. How could this happen?

I believe this is the effect of energetic communication.

The same thing can happen with you practicing kind acts in your humble life — once we reach the critical number, that kindness can spread even if you don’t directly teach it. (Note: The 100th monkey effect is disputed, like many psychic phenomena.)

You may also have noticed multiple people in different areas of the world seem to come up with very similar ideas almost at the same time. Like Edison and Bell conceiving the idea of the telephone. It’s like they both received the idea from — heaven?

It’s another sign that energy travels across space with no problem.

Conscious creation

Before, we didn’t fully know how powerful we really are, that we are creating our reality. So we became victims. But now, we know.

Are ALL evils created by us entertaining negative thoughts? I am not sure. For example, small children seem to take up the negativity in the collective consciousness and manifest it as their health problems. They also seem to come with certain health challenges as a way of learning — after all, we are all here to learn our life lessons, and why is it so wrong to learn it through health challenges (or financial problems or relationship difficulties)?

I am confident that the answer to the world’s seemingly overwhelming and complicated problems is quite simple. Change comes with one person choosing love and peace. And another person. And another. Join us!

The Root Of All Evil

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While we are talking about the shift to unity and love, it seems appropriate to discuss evil.

Honestly, I have avoided this topic. I don’t think I have ever even used the word “evil” on this blog. I know it opens a big can of worms, with questions like:

• What is the cause of evil?
• If God exists, why does God allow evil to exist?
• How does the Law of Attraction work with the evil? Did crime victims and sick children “attract” those events?

In this article, I am using the word “evil” to mean disastrous events such as wars, crimes, diseases, poverty, and so on. And no, they are not caused by darkworkers. Sometimes things may look so, such as Hitler killing so many Jews, but that is only what it looks on the surface.

Our sense of lack

As I wrote in “Who Am I?”, we all come from the one Source. So, even today, we remember the connectedness deep inside. This is true even if you were born to an abusive family or were abandoned in childhood and never felt the connectedness as a child. Regardless of your background in this lifetime, your soul remembers the original oneness.

In this physical world, however, we appear to be separate. You think you are different from the person next to you, for better or worse. This causes great pain inside us. We yearn to feel the connectedness again.

You may not have thought of it this way, but I am sure you recognize the deep sense of lack within you. And because you didn’t know it was a spiritual yearning, you probably have tried to fill that void by getting “things”.

The things may be material things — cars, houses, jewelry, dresses. . . or money. Or it may be certain qualities — good job, good mate, fame, social status, knowledge. . .

The persistence of lack

A strange thing happened. No matter how much more things you’ve got, you still have that sense of lack. You may even have tried to reason things out with yourself, that “I have enough”, but the nagging sense of lack is still there.

In the meantime, because everyone wants “more”, we have exhausted the resources (or so it appears). This, of course, adds even more to the sense of lack. Now it’s not just spiritual yearning, it’s more “real”.

So we started to fight for the things. . .

We are all causing evil

This is why I don’t think specific people or group of people are responsible for the evil. I am just as responsible as Hitler was.

For example, there is no significant difference energetically between me getting upset in the traffic jam and someone in the government starting a war. Let’s analyze:

Me in the traffic
I want to get to the market quickly
→ I don’t have time to be sitting in this traffic jam
→ I get upset
(one more step: I need to do something to get my share — I yell or drive recklessly)

Hypothetical war situation
I (we) want more oil for our industries, to be more prosperous
→ I don’t have time to negotiate or develop other energy sources
→ I need to fight to get it.

The results of each may look staggeringly different, one resulting in a frustrated woman and another killing thousands of people of both sides of the war and devastating the land, but the underlying psychological dynamics are the same.

Is it wrong to want something?

So the root of all evil is our sense of separated-ness and resulting sense of lack. Add that the misunderstanding that this lack could be satisfied with “things”, this causes all evils.

Original state
Oneness and wholeness

In this physical world
Sense of separated-ness and lack
+
Confusing this spiritual issue as physical / psychological issue
= fighting for more

You may be thinking, “Then, is it wrong to want anything? Is all wanting greed?”

No. it’s okay to enjoy this physical world. We incarnated for a good reason. And this world is beautiful. Admire it. Just don’t be attached to it.

There is nothing wrong to want to start your business or to be with your beloved partner and family. Or even to enjoy material things. (I love my new iPod nano!)

Just know your sense of lack and separation will never be eased by all these, or even more.

If God exists, why does God allow evil to exist?

I guess this explanation answers the common question above. I don’t think God as a person-like figure (like the old man in white robe — he usually has score cards). God is the energy that has created all the manifest and unmanifest universes. Individuality and resulting differentiation are part of the nature of the physical world.

God didn’t create evil but God allows us to deal with it on our own.

God is super intelligent and loving. God watches over us, but God doesn’t babysit on us.

Okay, this is a big topic, so I will stop here and write about evil and the Law of Attraction next time. Let me know if you have any questions by leaving your comments. Thank you.

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